I don’t understand how someone gets put on standby. Is there some sort of standby ticket? If so, how.. and do people really go through all the hassle of going to an airport while having a possibility of going home?
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My father has been a pilot for American Airlines since the early ’90s, and I’ve flown standby a lot.
I think the easiest way to explain it is by thinking of it like gambling, and it works in two directions. Airlines are gambling that a certain amount of people are going to be willing to pay a certain amount for a seat on a plane to commute from A to B. At the same time, they’re also allowed to sell tickets based on the number of expected no-shows. People who fly standby, rather than buying tickets, pay to be put into an ordered (and ranked) queue that allows them to fly for a lower price if they’re willing to take whatever seats remain of the difference.
So, essentially, you have four situations:
– The airline sells more tickets for a flight than there are seats. These flights are called “oversold” and the airline then has to basically buy people off of the plane (kind of like an auction).
– The airline sells the correct number of tickets, and everyone who bought a ticket gets a seat. These are “full” flights.
– The airline sells fewer tickets than seats or there are no-shows who open up seats. The airline then lets people who paid to be in the standby queue on the plane.
– The airline doesn’t sell enough tickets or have enough standby passengers to justify the cost of the flight, so the flight is cancelled.
But, people on standby lists roll over to subsequent flights from A to B, and I think they also get priority over people on standby lists for just those subsequent flights.
There’s some added complication with how staff can board the plane, since pilots can “dead-head” in the cockpit and on jumpseats, for example. But, that’s basically how it works.
Fun fact: According to my dad, there’s only one US airline that doesn’t oversell tickets — JetBlue.
You don’t actually “fly standby”. You’re put on standby. Unless you are flying as a “guest of the airline”. When I flew as my cousin’s “companion”, I was on standby. USUALLY, I got on the flight I wanted. But if weather happened, I’d get bumped to put actual paying customers that have been delayed into the seats. Sucks to be me….but that’s the deal for a $50 flight.
You’ll be on standby if your connecting flight is delayed and they have to rebook you. Or if your airplane can’t fly for some reason…rebooked and you’re on standby.
Basically….. you’re waiting for a seat to come available. As a paying customer, you get priority. As a REALLY paying customer (frequent flyer, first class) you get higher priority.
Oh I can answer this! I work for a major US carrier, and yes there is specific tickets for standby! Now, as for how you get standby tickets, there’s a couple different ways.
1. When you check in you can request to fly standby. Generally people do this to leave on an earlier or later flight than their originally scheduled flight.
2. If you missed or were voluntarily/involuntarily bumped off of your original flight.
3. You work for the airlines you can specifically book standby tickets to travel, as well as anyone listed on your travel benefits.
Now, as for why people choose to fly standby, like I said in 1, they want to leave earlier/later than their originally scheduled flight. Obviously if you miss your flight or were bumped you don’t really have a choice.
And as for 3, we’re taking advantage of our flight benefits! We can check how many seats are still open before booking as well. It does suck when we can’t get where we want to go and end up having to get home, but we’re used to it for the most part. This is always how airline employee’s travel privileges work, we only get on as long as there’s empty seats.
About 15 yrs ago Southwest “Buddy Passes” (stand by tickets) were often for sale on the black market (craig list)
I’d offer $100 and maybe 1 out of 5 sellers would let one go for that low of an amount.
It would then function as a ‘use anytime’ stand by ticket and worked really well because 10 or 15 yrs ago airplanes simply weren’t nearly as full as they are today.
Only once did I get burned, NYC to Dallas took me from LGA to Washington DC to Miami to Houston, then by the skin of my teeth, i was #13 and still boarded a 10 pm flight to Dallas.
The La Guardia gate attendant even warned me that I’d be F’d that day. He knew exactly what I was doing, was nice about it and gave good advice “only fly to large hubs till you catch a flight to Dallas”. Anyway, a (good) marriage ended the need for that well priced option.
Any one know if Southwest still gives out Buddy Passes ?
The pass would let me get a boarding pass for a particular flight, then I’d get thru screening, and get on that gate attendants list asap. If I got bounced another gate could issue a new boarding pass, if I remember correctly.
I used to be a flight attendant, and I flew standby all the time, everywhere. It was a perk of the job, but came with the risk that you might not make it where you wanted to go when you wanted to be there.
I almost got stranded in Mexico once, but snuck into first class when a couple didn’t show. I was looking at options to fly to a different Canadian city just to get back into the country and then figure it out from there.
It’s much more flexible as an airline employee than public. You just learn to roll with it. I was able to check flight status and so predict if I’d make it on or not, but sometimes you show up and hope!
Airlines oversell flights since a portion of passengers change, cancel or don’t show up for there scheduled flight. Standby passengers literally wait at the boarding gate to see if there is an empty seat you can sit in to get where you are going. Because you don’t have a reserved seat, the price is usually cheaper, but there is no guarantee you could leave that day (or two).
Sometimes its an emergency (parent needing to get to a sick child and the computer says there are no seats available on the plane) or it is a regularly scheduled flight and you’re at the airport early and want to get home quicker. Ask the counter at check in if you can catch the earlier flight. If your ticket allows changes and there’s space available on an earlier flight, you could get home at 4pm instead of waiting for hours in the waiting room and get home at 7pm.
Sometimes they will say “we are oversold” and will offer you $300 to take the next flight. The other person who is taking your seat has paid $1000 for the ticket so they aren’t loosing anything.
My friend works for a major airline and got to fly for cheap and I got a buddy pass from him a couple of times meaning I flew standby. Long story short last time I talked to him about it he said it was near impossible to fly this way as the airlines intentionally overbook flights
I’m booked on the 8pm flight home. My meeting ends early so I go to the airport early. There is an earlier flight to my destination, I request to be put on Standby. If they have extra seats, I can get home early.
Airline fills an empty seat. My seat on the later flight is open in case someone else will pay for it, I get home early. Everybody wins.
There are times of the day that are very desirable. If you are a businessman who is flying out to headquarters for a week, you want to go out early on Monday, and go home around 5 or 6 in the evening on Friday (as one example).
This means the seats can be booked weeks in advance. In order to guarantee that you have a seat, sometimes a wealthy person will book two or three seats in case they get bumped (there may be two planes going to the same destination during a popular time/day).
Sometimes someone who has made a reservation simply has a car accident, or a heart attack, or changes their mind. For a variety of reasons, a seat will open up, and the airlines wants to fill that seat. The incentive for someone to wait for a standby seat is that the price is cheaper.
But…what if everyone shows up, and there are no standby seats? You sit in the airport until there is a seat, which can be until 11 O’Clock at night.
You can even make a reservation for 12:00 noon, but you show up at 6:00 AM in case a cheaper seat opens up, so then you cancel your 12:00 seat.
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